Latest News from Suresh Sambandam

OrangeScape Fast-Tracks Lotus Notes Migration in Partnership with CIMtrek

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:10:58 EDT

OrangeScape, a Global 10 Platform-as-a-Service provider, has announced a partnership with CIMtrek Ltd, a leader in the automated migration of Lotus Notes applications. Enterprises will now have fast-track migration of the Lotus Domino Applications to a modern cloud based application on OrangeScape platform. This solution will be bundled into OrangeScape's offering to their mutual customers enabling the rapid transition of apps from Lotus Notes to the Cloud. Migrating from Lotus, to Google or Microsoft, typically starts with email and calendars. However this remains incomplete and painful until Domino Applications are also addressed. OrangeScape had recently announced its Lotus Notes Migration offering, an alternative Visual PaaS platform on the cloud that provides a smooth transition for Domino Developers. This partnership further strengthens OrangeScape'sLotus Notes migration solution by significantly reducing the time, cost and effort for customers planning to move from Lotus Notes to a cloud infrastructure such as Google or Microsoft.

Cloud, PaaS and the Rise of the Visual Developers

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EDT

Cloud Computing , more specifically Platform as a Service (PaaS) is changing the business app developer demographic forever. Or should I say that, PaaS is reviving or giving a new lease of life for productivity focused business developers. The kind that existed during the Client-Server paradigm empowered by Power Builder, Developer 2000, Visual Basic and the likes. Pardon me for using a poor - Jurasic metaphor! A great meteor in the name of "web development" hit software industry and nearly wiped out those folks. That changed the cost of developing software within the enterprises multi-fold. Rewind, 15 years ago. Visual Developers were a boon for CIOs, VP and IT Managers in large enterprises. They understood the business and produced software quickly meeting the needs of the enterprise. Loosing them was a big handicap for the IT department. My hunch says that is one of the large contributors for the IT department gradually loosing its innovation and eventually gave into outsourcing.

CIO Question: What is the Right PaaS for Enterprises?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:00:00 EDT

There are a number of the Cloud Application Platforms out there. And, that makes the life of CIO difficult in choosing the right PaaS for his enterprise. This post takes a logical approach to this challenge by examining the key enterprise needs and motivations.

Visual PaaS: If Data Is King, Then Logic Is Queen

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:15:00 EDT

You can't imagine any business application without a business logic/rule. Yet, business rules are the most abused term and least understood. Everybody knows the importance of it, but sadly everyone has a cliched understanding. In this post, I set out to articulate business rules in general and also explain how do we handle "Business Rules" in OrangeScape Visual PaaS. Let us revisit basics for a minute. Any piece of software is ultimately made of data and logic. That is the reason there "Data Structures and Algorithms in College syllabus. And, our students learn (or should I say memorize) that without understanding the importance - and that is a different matter. In the evolution of computing, i.e., during structured programming paradigm - people believed logic is important. And, we know now, that DATA is more important than logic. That is why OrangeScape Visual PaaS is based on Data Model Centric - Data First Architecture.

Data Model - Hero of Your Story, Sorry, Project!

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EDT

Visual PaaS (meta-data PaaS) is purpose built for developing business applications like Order Management, CRM, Dealer Management Systems, Claims Processing - type applications. In such applications, the success of the project is determined by the strength of the "data model" created by your solution architect/designer. In post, builds the case for the same.

Shouldn't PaaS for Enterprises Be More than DevOps?

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:30:00 EST

This is Part 2 in my series of post on the topic of PaaS (Platform as a Service) and in this post I have covered why PaaS for enterprises is more than just DevOps and a larger "technology convergence" in the core "Software Engineering" area is leading this perfect storm called PaaS. The 1st part is: What is PaaS all about? - Part 1 : It's about Abstraction Before I go deep into this topic, I want to clarify "technology convergence" from "programming environment optimization" primarily in the context of this post. The programming environment optimization is more commonly referred as "DevOps". This picture from Wikipedia describes the problem space of "DevOps". (Check out this post on: What is this DevOps thing, anyway?)

What Is PaaS All About? - Part 1

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:45:00 EST

This is the first part of the multi-part series on "What is PaaS all about?" Let’s start by looking at the “Platform” story prior to Cloud. Enterprise IT did a lot of heavy lifting. They handcrafted the platform by combining various products such as App Servers, Web Servers, Databases, Middleware, Integration Servers, Portal Servers, and Workflow Engines. Not only did Enterprises IT create a unique combination for them, they also ended up redundantly deploying it for various projects within the enterprise. There was no common or central runtime platform, although they always intended to create one. In most cases, it was an approach or a blueprint.

Demystifying the PaaS Landscape

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 08:45:00 EDT

There are different types Application Platform as a Service. Choosing one vs the other involves certain trade off and this article attempts to bring to light those trade offs. Every other day there is a new cloud product / platform announcement. Not just startups, even the mega ISVs are jumping onto the cloud bandwagon. Oracle's Larry Ellison first said cloud is all crap and then announces ‘Cloud-in-a-box,' sort of an oxymoron, and in this year's OOW Oracle made a flamboyant announcement - this is just one of the more popular samples. The platform-as-a-service landscape is muddied every day as more vendors are cloud washing their offerings.

When to PaaS Instead of SaaS or IaaS

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:45:00 EDT

Making a the right choice in the cloud is important. This article tries to address when to PaaS instead of SaaS or IaaS. It can be argued that Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) have been sufficiently commoditized so as to neutralize any “breakthrough” competitive advantage they might originally have presented. In simple terms, once everybody’s doing it, you have to do it just to keep pace. If only one bank had Automated Teller Machines, that bank would have a big advantage. Today, things like ATM’s and online banking are commodity offerings. Without them, a bank could not stay in business. We’re rapidly getting to the point where the same can be said for enterprises that don’t recognize and exploit the value of IaaS and SaaS where appropriate.

What Does PaaS, a Horse, Car and Plane Have in Common?

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 07:00:00 EST

When anyone is planning to break the barrier for Cost, Quality and time, the only option is to look for a different paradigm. I readily agreed when Ramasubramaniam VP of Chennai PMI Chapter asked me to speak on ‘Cloud Computing’ – obviously :-) ! But, I realized the twist only later. The topic was ‘Cloud Computing and Project Management – Impact on Global Delivery Model’. :-( ! Hmm.. project management is not one of my favorites but having agreed to speak in the event, I had no choice but to give a hard thought on this topic. Simply put the way I have internalized Project Management at the activity level is the PDCA model i.e., Plan - Do - Check - Act. But what really matters is the end result that a project manager produces i.e. delivering the project by working on Cost, Quality and Time.

Why Old ERP Wine Can't Be Bottled in SaaS

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:45:00 EDT

This article discuss how SaaS is fundamentally changing the way 'enterprise apps' are being built. SaaS is about focussed point solutins vs the traditional ERPs are more of application platforms. While, there is nothing wrong with these articles - I wasn't able to find one that addressed what I feel is a much more fundamental shift in the way the SaaS applications are / will be built. This thought has been running in my mind for quite sometime now and I indeed talked about this to Zinnov Research in a long research interview around 4 months ago. They did produce a great slide based on our discussion - more on that later in this blog. So, as I didn't find much success in locating articles or blogs in the direction of my thoughts, I decided to blog it myself.

India Cloud and SaaS Opportunity

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:51:30 EDT

This report talks about India Cloud / SaaS Opportunity. 1. First, this is a fantastic effort from Zinnov for bringing an India perspective for ‘Cloud'. Full Credits to Pari Natarajan, Chandramouli, Anand Tatambhotla and the team behind this effort. 2. Second, we weren't even aware that OrangeScape was part of this report. I remember talking to these folks 9 months ago or something, and I do run into them in panel discussions in cloud conferences but never knew that we are going to be featured. Looks like they have been tracking OrangeScape and thanks a ton for the reference. 3. Slide 16, talks about India having legacy of Jumping Curve. It will be fair to bet on that assumption for Cloud too. Tally CEO Bharat Goenka is not going to like it though ! 4. Slide 23, is another interesting transforming that is waiting to explode. Government of India is actively thinking about ‘India Cloud' for Government Services

Clearing the Confusion Around "Private Cloud"

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:45:00 EDT

I was on a LinkedIn thread titled ‘How cloud computing is different from SaaS‘ where Rick Chapman who runs SoftLetter and SaaS University went on beating on this question ‘What is a private cloud’? It is definitely worth it given the tremendous amount of confusion in the term ‘Cloud’ in general and ‘Private Cloud’ in particular. The motivation for this post is Rick and supported by a tweet I read around the same time from ‘Carl Brooks‘ who is a technology writer on Cloud at TechTarget. Let me give it a shot.

Why Most Visual Development / 4GL Tools Fail? – Part 1

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:10:00 EDT

There are quite a few visual development tools that have failed in the past. When I say past, I meant the pre-cloud era. The commercially successful ones are Visual Basic, PowerBuilder (just googled and found out that PowerBuilder still exists (and has its own Journal) and Oracle Forms 4.5. Although, popularity and merits of the language need not co-relate. :-) ! And, there are quite few that have come up in the current cloud paradigm. Few Examples : Coghead (already in dead pool), VisualForce of Force.com, WaveMaker, Zoho Creator. My POV is on the approach taken to solve the problem (of visual development) rather than any of the companies/products itself.

OrangeScape PaaS – Introduction Video

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 22:55:00 EDT

Read more via The Official OrangeScape Blog.

A Case for ‘Virtual Private Cloud’

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:19:00 EDT

Coincidently, immediately after my post on ‘What the hell is Private Cloud?’, I happen to talk to one of my best friend, ex-CEO of a startup, now CDO (Chief Delivery Officer), in an IT Services firm @ KY, US – … Continue reading →

Unifying the Enterprise Application Puzzle

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:02:00 EDT

Fifteen to twenty years ago, enterprise application development, as we know today, wasn’t all that clear. All I can deduce, in a retrospective analysis – digging the internet, is that people knew the different puzzle pieces that were needed, in building an enterprise application. For example, need for abstracting business rules for modifying rules separately from the rest of the application lead to the creation of the the BRE category with companies like iLog (now with IBM), Selectica (my ex-employer which is no longer in the BRE space – sad!), Talarian – now with TIBCO (I used Talarian’s RTIE when I was at HP to build Fraud Detection System for Vodafone), and it's interesting to see Tom Laffey of Talarian still at Tibco as EVP of Products & Technology) and the opensource DRools and Jess.

Zinnov Report – Cloud The Way Forward in India

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:40:00 EDT

Here are my comments: 1. First, this is a fantastic effort from Zinnov for bringing an India perspective for ‘Cloud’. Full Credits to Pari Natarajan, Chandramouli, Anand Tatambhotla and the team behind this effort. 2. Second, we weren’t even aware that OrangeScape was part of this report. I remember talking to these folks 9 months ago or something, and I do run into them in panel discussions in cloud conferences but never knew that we are going to be featured. Looks like they have been tracking OrangeScape and thanks a ton for the reference. 3. Slide 16, talks about India having legacy of Jumping Curve. It will be fair to bet on that assumption for Cloud too. Tally CEO Bharat Goenka is not going to like it though !

What Is Private Cloud?

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:18:00 EDT

Why Most Visual Development / 4GL Tools Fail? – Part 1

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:14:00 EDT

Part 1 : Top down vs Bottom Up. There are quite a few visual development tools that have failed in the past. When I say past, I meant the pre-cloud era. The commercially successful ones are Visual Basic, PowerBuilder (just googled and found out that PowerBuilder still exists under Sybase) and Oracle Forms 4.5. Although, popularity and merits of the language need not co-relate. :-) ! And, there are quite few that have come up in the current cloud paradigm. Few Examples : Coghead (already in dead pool), VisualForce of Force.com, WaveMaker, Zoho Creator. My POV is on the approach taken to solve the problem (of visual development) rather than any of the companies/products itself.

Unifying the Enterprise Application Puzzle Pieces

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 20:07:00 EDT

15-20 years ago, enterprise application development, as we know today, wasn’t all that clear. All I can deduce, in a retrospective analysis – digging the internet, is that people knew the different puzzle pieces which are needed, in building an enterprise application. For example, need for abstracting business rules for modifying rules separately from rest of the application lead to the creation of the the BRE category with companies like iLog (now with IBM), Selectica (my ex-employer which is no longer in the BRE space – sad!), Talarian – now with TIBCO (I used Talarian’s RTIE when I was at HP to build Fraud Detection System for Vodafone and interesting to see Tom Laffey of Talarian still at Tibco as EVP of Products & Technology) and the opensource DRools and Jess.

Blog Cloud

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 03:48:18 EDT

Filed under: Cloud, Enterprise Application, Entrepreneurship, OrangeScape, Visual Development Tagged: AJAX, BPM, BRE, Cloud, Enterprise Application, OrangeScape, ORM, Persistence, Rule Engine, Selectica, UI, WF, Workflow